Gardeners love to create something from nothing. We coax plants out of nearly invisible seeds buried in dark soil. We shape order out of chaos, beauty out of wilderness. We fix, rig, substitute or invent solutions for everyday gardening challenges.

So it it for two gardeners from which the rest of us might learn something about gardengenuity.

Mike McGrath, organic gardener extraordinaire who lives in Upper Milford Township, was turning his compost pile one day when he disturbed a small yellow jacket nest, and an angry insect bit his hand.

Rushing to the kitchen for the Adolph's Tenderizer -- the ingredient papain, an enzyme derived from papaya, neutralizes the sting -- McGrath also grabbed a can of Pam extra virgin olive oil cooking spray.

Back at the compost pile, he aimed the nozzle at the nest, rendering it uninhabitable and killing the immature grubs inside. He also spared himself a trip to the garden center for an organic insect killer, at least one labeled specifically for that purpsoe.

It's not that gardeners are cheap -- we spent $35 billion on our passion last year. It's just that some of the most effective remedies for garden ills are homemade.

When McGrath, host of WHYY's Saturday morning show, "You Bet Your Garden," gave out the formula for a garlic/hot-pepper spray to deter rabbits and various leaf-chomping bugs, "I had lots of listeners get back to me and say it protected their roses from Japanese beetles last year," he says.

In the world of gardening, that's hitting a home run. (See Gardengenuity on page G10 for the formula for this spray.)

Another common complaint in the vegetable garden is blossom-end rot on tomatoes. It's disheartening to spend months babying plants, only to harvest red globes marred by ugly black blemishes on the side away from the stem. Not McGrath's tomatoes.

Each year, starting in January, he begins collecting empty egg shells from the kitchen. By late May, he has dozens to crush up and add to each planting hole. He explains that the calcium in the egg shells helps prevent the disease.

How many egg shells per tomato plant? It doesn't matter. A dozen or so per plant is good, but whatever you have will do, McGrath says.

Mosquitoes biting? He'll grab a handful of lemon balm herb tea leaves to crush and rub on exposed skin. In fact, anything lemony has a shot at repelling biting bugs.

Raspberries need pollinating? Bring in the bees by allowing a few flowering weeds to grow nearby.

And that leftover coffee? There's probably an acid-loving plant outside the kitchen door in need of a pick-me-up.

McGrath dilutes the dregs of his coffee pot with water before emptying it on the azaleas.

Another benefit of creating your own garden solutions is that it's not an exact science. Anything goes. "It's gardening -- it's cooking, not baking," says McGrath.

"There is no one right way to garden," echoes Veronica Fowler, editor of "Yankee Magazine's Panty Hose, Hot Peppers, Tea Bags, and More -- For the Garden," a recent book that gardeners will find great bedside reading.

"You need to water them and have good soil, but when it comes to staking tomatoes, necessity is the mother of invention," she says. "You can use an old chair, you can use a shower rod, you can use a $50 support system. It's not rocket science. Gardening is as old as the first person who kicked a seed into the ground and realized a plant came out of that."

Organized into 14 chapters covering lawns, tools, indoor gardening and more, the book was developed from the brains of a dozen garden writers around the country. Fowler hopes it will inspire people to find things to use in new and innovative ways.

She's turned a flower pot upside down in the yard to create a cache for plastic bags for picking up after a new puppy. She's built a pedestal for a flower pot out of pavers and bricks. She's placed an old bathroom mirror behind an old window frame to create the illusion of another garden glimpsed through the panes.

For powdery mildew on lilacs, asters and bee balm, Fowler sprays plants with a baking soda/soap solution several times in early summer, so the fungus can't take hold in late summer. (See recipe, right.) There is great advantage to insect and disease formulas made with ingredients found in a kitchen, she says. "They are earth-friendly. You don't have leftover chemicals sitting in your garden, and you don't have to worry about spraying your food with chemicals."

Finally, the three best things you can do for your garden are the classic examples of transforming nothing into something.

Mix together ingredients. Spray on plants in early spring after they've started to leaf out but before temperatures regularly hit 80 degrees. Coat heavily both top and bottom once each week for two or three weeks.